{"id":613767,"date":"2026-02-20T14:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613767\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:04:13","slug":"joe-lacob-on-porzingis-trading-kuminga-and-why-the-warriors-wont-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/613767\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Lacob on Porzingis, trading Kuminga, and why the Warriors won\u2019t tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the <\/a>Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the \u201cSection 415″ podcast <\/a>wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was not a lot for Joe Lacob to love \u2014 or even barely tolerate \u2014 about the Warriors in the first few quarters on Thursday, though things changed enough in the second half that he wasn\u2019t grumbling at everybody afterward.<\/p>\n

I was OK, either way \u2014 with Bad Mood Joe or not \u2014 for this interview, which we\u2019d scheduled long before the Warriors fell behind by 33 points to Boston at Chase Center then rallied and eventually lost 121-110.<\/p>\n

But in a game without Stephen Curry and that began so horribly, Lacob was slightly brightened by the Warriors debut of Kristaps Porzingis, who, like all of his new teammates, started slowly then played much better in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed you a little bit about what he can do and why we got him,\u201d Lacob said of Porzingis, who scored who scored 12 points in the game and went 2-of-5 from three-point distance. \u201cHe\u2019s always been one of my favorite players, to be honest, just in terms of his skill set, his size. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, Mike Dunleavy and the guys always laugh because I\u2019m always yelling for more size. And we finally got it. He\u2019s 7-foot-3, so I\u2019m happy with that. We\u2019ve got two real 7-footers on the team now [along with Quinten Post]. I like what I saw. Let\u2019s get him ready, get him back to playing, get his timing back, and get used to our players. I think it\u2019s encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porzingis, of course, was acquired at the trade deadline earlier this month in a deal that sent Jonathan Kuminga to Atlanta and ended months and months of debate and agonizing about Kuminga\u2019s fit and future with the Warriors.<\/p>\n

There are questions about Porzingis\u2019 continuing health issues, questions about his pending free agency, questions about his potential trade value, and questions about how much the Warriors will want to pay him in any new deal.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s little doubt that with his size and unique scoring skills, Porzingis is a very interesting player to watch over the final 26 games of the regular season \u2014 or however many he actually plays.<\/p>\n

He won\u2019t be playing with Curry, though, for a while, after the Warriors announced that Curry\u2019s lingering knee issue will keep him out for at least another four games. Couple that with Jimmy Butler\u2019s season-ending ACL tear last month and the inability to land Giannis Antetokounmpo at the deadline and \u2026 where are the Warriors now really?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know when [Curry]\u2019s coming back,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cBut we\u2019re just going to have to gut it out, win some of these games. The good news is we\u2019re not too far away from falling [in the standings], but we\u2019re not too far away from moving up a little bit, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a shot. I\u2019m an optimist, as you know. I think our players, hopefully, will step up and play as best as we can, integrate Porzingis, get Curry back, and hopefully we make a decent run.\u201d <\/p>\n

Can an owner who likes to try to speak things into existence truly be realistic about the Warriors the rest of this season and into the future \u2014 with a championship wholly out the window and even getting out of the play-in tournament a long shot?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, this season matters to the fans who bought tickets for this year,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cHopefully, they\u2019ll be our fans next year as well, obviously. I think you should always be trying to win and do the best you can. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been dealt a couple of tough cards here right now. And our expectations probably shouldn\u2019t be as high as they were. I thought, with Jimmy, since we acquired him, we were the fourth best record in the league, I think. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd unfortunately, the Jimmy injury just came at the exact wrong time. I know that\u2019s difficult, but we just have to figure out a way to win. Maybe the expectations for where we can get are not as high, but we can still be good. We can still be in the playoffs. We still have Steph Curry. We still have some really good players. And I think we can upset some people. Who knows how far we can go? I\u2019m not going to try to think about that or judge it, I think we should just work as hard as we can, play as smart as we can, and get as far as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which bumps right into the NBA topic du jour: The great gaggle of bad teams that are quite strenuously trying to be as bad as possible to get a better shot in the lottery and land a potential star in the draft.<\/p>\n

The Warriors aren\u2019t doing that. I didn\u2019t get too far into the question for Lacob to leap in with his answer on tanking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw where another owner came out today and spoke on it, [the Suns\u2019] Mat Ishbia,\u201d Lacob said of Ishbia\u2019s social-media comments lambasting the idea of tanking. \u201cI think you know, it is not in my DNA, nor in this organization\u2019s DNA, to do that. \u2026 It\u2019s not a good look. This is sports. We\u2019re supposed to play to win. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s just not a way I would be comfortable, ever, trying to improve our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could\u2019ve pointed out that the Warriors did some extra-effort losing at the end of the 2011-12 season to ensure keeping their protected first-round pick. But I didn\u2019t call Lacob on it because that was a long time ago and it was very early in his ownership tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our fans, I\u2019m sure \u2014 I hear it all the time \u2014 would love us to, whatever you want to call it, lose for a better draft position because they assume we\u2019re not going to win this year,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cI could never do that. And I don\u2019t think our coach is built that way or our team. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like it. It is happening, obviously, around the league. And it is a way to build a franchise, I guess, to get draft choices. But it also takes a lot of years to do that. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m sure there will be a day where we have to build our team through the draft more. But right now, I still think we\u2019re formidable if we can just get healthy. Obviously, we don\u2019t have Jimmy. We will get Steph back here, but we\u2019re not fully healthy. In the NBA, obviously, when you lose a top-10 or top-15 player, that\u2019s very difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get back to one of the most interesting trade deadlines in recent Warriors history \u2026<\/p>\n

Lacob has always been one of Kuminga\u2019s biggest fans in the franchise. And it was always clear that he wouldn\u2019t stand in the way of a Kuminga trade \u2014 hey, they actually did trade him \u2014 but that Lacob would demand getting a lot of value if it happened.<\/p>\n

Maybe Porzingis isn\u2019t top value, but he\u2019s not nothing. I asked Lacob: Was it hard for you to sign off on trading Kuminga?<\/p>\n

\u201cNot hard; everyone assumes a lot about that,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cLook, I liked him as a player, I like him as a person. \u2026 And at times, he showed a lot of potential for us. Just never quite really worked entirely. And he got injured at inopportune times. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all knew we had to do something. But we weren\u2019t going to give him away, either. Because he is a talent, and a lot of people think that, too. It just worked out \u2014 we got something that we thought was worth doing. Otherwise, we would\u2019ve kept him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could you have gotten more for Kuminga if you\u2019d looked hard to trade him a year or two ago?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cPeople say I loved him as a player, I was protecting him, I was whatever. That\u2019s just not true. I did like him. I like all our players. Otherwise, we wouldn\u2019t be acquiring them if we didn\u2019t all like them. But you know, it just didn\u2019t work. It looked like it was going to work. It was off and on a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the process of the Giannis discussions and reporting, Draymond Green\u2019s name was prominently mentioned as part of a potential Warriors offer \u2014 quite sensibly, because a salary-matching deal would have to include either Draymond or Butler.<\/p>\n

After the deadline, Dunleavy pushed back on the presumption that Draymond was actually offered because the Warriors and Bucks only spoke in the most general terms. Lacob backed that up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was never discussed in a trade; Mike was 100% correct what he said,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cI know he got a lot of crap for that. And it did look defensive. I mean, I think he would say that in retrospect. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the truth is, the way these things are, you don\u2019t just easily banter around names unless you\u2019re getting serious. \u2026 We never really got engagement on some of the big deals to the point where you get into specific names. People can look at the roster and they can make assumptions about who might or might not have to go if you\u2019ve got a certain person. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can tell you he was never shopped in any way. He\u2019s a core person in our franchise. You don\u2019t trade a Draymond Green simply or easily. You do it if you have to, and you\u2019re getting tremendous value and you\u2019re improving your team. Even Draymond has said he understands that. You have to look at these things. But his name was never specifically discussed with another team. And that\u2019s the truth.\u201d <\/p>\n

OK, one more hot-button topic: Is there any clarity about Steve Kerr\u2019s future beyond this summer, when his contract expires?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Steve has answered that question; there\u2019s nothing more I can say,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cHe has said we\u2019re going to wait until after the season. That\u2019s 100% accurate. We\u2019ve discussed it. No point in talking about it now. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a job to do. Let\u2019s just let people focus \u2014 I mean, why would you do that now? Let\u2019s just focus on the season. Really, it\u2019s up to him. What does he want to do? And he doesn\u2019t know, I don\u2019t think. So we\u2019ll have that discussion later.\u201d <\/p>\n

Are you happy with the job Kerr\u2019s done this season?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look at it in one season,\u201d Lacob said. \u201cI look at it \u2014 he\u2019s been our coach for 12 years. I think you can make the assumption that I think a lot of Steve Kerr. He\u2019s a great coach. He\u2019s been very successful. He\u2019s won us four championships. Been to six Finals. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a great human being, I really really, really respect him, admire him. But it depends what he wants to do and how he feels at the end of the season, and where we\u2019re at. We\u2019ll take all of it, put it into a bowl and figure it out. And I\u2019m not really very worried about it, and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s very worried about it, either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,867,6,66,932,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-613767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-jonathan-kuminga","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-steph-curry","17":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116103339590390906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}